John James Foundation Dinner

The John James Foundation is Canberra’s leading medical charity with a range of services and input to the healthcare system that benefits many, but quietly goes about its business with the kind of caring and compassionate attitude that would make the late Dr John James proud.

I remember him and his wife from way back when he had his home and surgery on a Torrens street corner that I passed so often on the way to everywhere, but especially to Coggan’s Bakery for the bread and milk. A gentle man, who did “neat and pretty surgery” according to his biography was very much a part of the early days of Canberra’s medical fraternity. His son Carey, a plastic surgeon inherited those genes, doing ‘petit-point’ perfect stitches on my face many years ago, but that’s another story.

The John James Foundation dinner was a suitably smart affair with medicos of all persuasions joined by the business and government stakeholders and wives and partners for a bit of the official business of the foundation but especially for the expertise of the one and only James Halliday. What a lovely way to spend and evening, four courses with wine to match, a knowledgeable and suave gent to decipher the particulars of the wines and convivial company of those who work hard for the benefit of many.